Last week I talked about the challenges of marketing a service. There are plenty! But this week, we are talking about changing those challenges into positives of marketing your personal training services.
Give Them a Taste
Since you are marketing a service, a consumer cannot see or feel what you are offering. With a product, they get a chance to maybe use a friend’s before they actually go out and purchase it for themselves. Turn this lack of tangibility into a positive thing for your services. Offering trial offers or free sessions is a great way for your potential clients to get a taste of what you will do for them. This is a risky thing since they may not enjoy the way you will train them, but it is also a great benefit when you get to show them the value you will bring into their life. Give them your best and show them what you can offer them. If you are actually a good trainer, this will bring nothing but good things for you.
Building Relationships
Your service is also part of a relationship with all of your clients and potential clients. You will not just be there as a trainer, but your clients will get comfortable with you and begin to tell you things that are happening in their lives. This can be a great advantage to keeping your clients. Building that trust and growing those relationships will make you even more valuable to them. You become not only a source of health and fitness, but you become someone they rely on for more than just that. Use that to your advantage and continue to cultivate those relationships.
Comparing Services
As I said last week, finding reviews for a product is easy and will most likely not let you down. If the majority of reviews are positive, you will most likely enjoy the product. If they are negative, you can bet that the product doesn’t match up to what they’re selling. It is harder to find objective reviews about services. These are mostly based on opinions of others that might not match your thoughts or beliefs. As a trainer offering services, it is beneficial to you to get your best clients to support you in any ways possible. Ask your “start clients” to give you positive reviews on several different official rating websites such as Angie’s List or Yelp. This will greatly increase your chances of people contacting you if all they see is an overwhelming positive response from your services from a variety of people.
Time Commitments
It can be hard to convince potential clients that your services will be fully worth their time. This can be easily turned around by using the strategies above. Specifically getting your star clients to give you good ratings and reviews, and giving them a trial offer or a couple free sessions. Again, show them that your service is worth their time.
No Returns Needed
Yes, there are no returns in a service-based business. You can return money, but you cannot return someone’s precious time. This one is honestly unavoidable. Convincing them that your service is worth their time is your only option. Try some of the strategies above to hopefully hook them into trying you out. Once you have them on the line, give it your all to show them that you are worth it. Remember, not all clients are the same so make sure to tailor each session with different clients to fit them. Show them you are serious about helping them individually reach their goals.
What are some more ways positive things about marketing a service? What have you done before to successfully market your personal training services amongst all the challenges?
Ryan Farrell started working with the National Federation of Professional Trainers (NFPT) in 2012. As NFPT's Marketing Coordinator, Ryan is responsible for aiding company reputation by building brand awareness and establishing strong working relationships among NFPT, its affiliates and industry partners.
